Regex match only exact words

Question

I use the following function to give certain words spans with classnames:

$.fn.wrapInTag = function(opts, color) {

  var tag = opts.tag || 'span'
    , words = opts.words || []
    , regex = RegExp(words.join('|'), 'gi') // case insensitive
    , replacement = '<'+ tag + ' class="' + color +'">$&</'+ tag +'>';

  return this.html(function() {
  return $(this).html().replace(regex, replacement);
});
};

The problem is it matches redundant in this for example. How can I make it match only the exact words (red but not redundant)? I did some research and found i need to do something like this:

(\w+)

But I dont know where to add it next to gi

The Function i would run to add to a word is:

<p>Only one redundant word is red</p>

$('p').wrapInTag({
      tag: 'span',
      words: ['red']
}, 'blue');

Thanks

Created a quick JSFiddle [https://jsfiddle.net/611g00n6/] from the code you provided, seems like red is getting matched as expected, but so is the 'red' in 'redundant'. Is that what your problem is? — Chirag Bhatia - chirag64, Jul 27 '16 at 17:43

score 11 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 27 '16 at 17:43

11

I don't think it has anything to do with (\w+). If I'm reading the problem correctly you want to match a word, not substring of a word. This can be achieved using word boundaries \b

Like so \b(is|red|blue)\b will match exactly is or red or blue.

MDN on word boundary regex

answered Jul 27 '16 at 17:43

r0dney

735
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5
16

What about `/(\w+)/gi` isn't that OK? – Morteza Tourani Jul 27 '16 at 17:56
1

@mortezaT I don't understand, how does that prevent you from matching substring of a word? – r0dney Jul 27 '16 at 17:59
https://jsfiddle.net/611g00n6/1/ – anubhava Jul 27 '16 at 18:08
1

@anubhava for multiple words in the words array it only worked when i did `RegExp('(\\b)(' + words.join('|') + ')(\\b)', 'gi')` are the brackets between the words that important – cmgchess Nov 10 '22 at 19:27
Yes brackets are important for grouping words together – anubhava Nov 10 '22 at 19:29

Regex match only exact words

1 Answers1